With the limited card pool there is going to be a large degree of overlap between decks. I do not pretend that this deck is novel, but it fits my play style and supports a modicum of combat control. As long as the scoring system rewards finishing quests with undamaged heroes, Arwen is going to be a staple of many decks. In a game where action and resource efficiency are critical, the fact that her healing costs neither is noteworthy.

Likewise, Legolas gives us free damage every round, at no additional cost. Both his direct damage and his ranged attacks allow Legolas to circumvent the defend keyword, which allows you to make ideal combat decisions most rounds. Otherwise, we have a host of allies to do our defending for us. Other than the obvious necessity of Self-Preservation, our attachments are combat-focused, which helps a deck which can otherwise lack attack strength in the middle game.

Just as in the original version of the game, Aragorn is a stellar all-around hero. With good attack and willpower stats, his action advantage can help finish off the last enemy, or put the last few progress on an objective. Avoiding additional rounds - and threat - is crucial for survival, and a high score.

The rest of the deck is packed with healing and defensive-minded allies. As the only character with defend and block, Erkenbrand is ridiculously powerful for a level one card. I suspect he will get nerfed, or at least have his level changed at some point during early access. The dwarven allies all provide combat prowess: Erebor Watchman, Veteran Axehand - or provide invaluable support with card draw (Erebor Record Keeper) or resource acceleration (Zigil Miner). Dwarves have so many generically powerful allies, it does make me wonder how much design space there is in the other archetypes for this kinds of glue cards. Time will tell.

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